There is no doubt, Belgian legend Joel Smets belongs right up there with every single legend of the sport and considering he didn’t start riding a motocross bike until he was 17, his achievements could easily be compared with those of Stefan Everts, Antonio Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings, three of the top men the Grand Prix scene has ever seen.

I was lucky enough to witness nearly the complete career of Smets and what always stood out was his fighting spirit, never giving up and working hard to get the results he got. Not as talented as maybe riders like Stefan Everts or Jeffrey Herlings, but then again, when you start riding a bike at 17 years of age, like in many sports, you miss out on a lot of technical skills that young kids pick up quicker.

Like many of the all-time greats of the 1980s, Dave Thorpe, Eric Geboers or Andre Malherbe, Smets was one of the few riders from the 1990s who could take it to the great American riders of Team USA in the 1990s and often came out on top, winning a few MXdN titles with Team Belgium.

I was lucky enough to catch up with the five time World 500cc champion at the Spanish Grand Prix and we sat down and talked about his career, the emotions he still carries as he worked with the younger riders and an emotional moment in Trentino. It was a moment that Joel again got emotional during the interview and one that will probably last within the KTM team forever.

MXLarge: Having five World 500cc championships and 57 Grand Prix wins, you know what it is like to get records, or join legends on the all-time lists. I remember when you won your 50^th and joined Joel Robert with 50 GP wins each or five titles and you joined Roger De Coster, Eric Geboers and Georges Jobe, all Belgian legends you had looked up to, I remember you being emotional on those moments. Jeffrey doesn’t seem that emotional today winning his 102^nd GP win, but how did you feel in those moments I mentioned about your career?

Smets: I was happy let’s say, but records or that type of thing were not so important for me. Maybe Jeffrey doesn’t show emotions, but for him, it is very important. He talks about it all the time. I told him last week; I have given away all my trophies and he was surprised. He said, “You have 57 GP wins and how many podiums”. I said to him, I have no clue how many podiums I had or how many motos I won. This isn’t making me happy if I know that information. I am proud of the 57 GP’s I won and 50 was always the benchmark and also, I was named after Joel Robert, who held that record for so long. So, winning my 50^th Grand Prix after the guy I was named after, that was very emotional.

MXLarge: Also getting those five World titles to be equal with some of your heroes in Roger De Coster, Eric Geboers and Georges Jobe, that must have been something as well?

Smets: Yes, for sure and the old I become, the more I feel the value of those titles and GP wins. Even in a way, I sometimes have a hard time to believe what I have achieved. Sometimes when I look at the list of all time winners and there is Jeffrey, Stefan, Tony and then its me. My son has been a part of my active career, he has witnessed a bit of it. He was born when I won my first championship and 10 when I finished my career, so has some memories, but my daughter was born after I finished my career. Now she is 18 and she meets people talking about her dad and stuff and I tell her, but she is always impressed, and her father’s friend says Joel Smets is a hero. What is for me special, I got my first motorcycle when I was 17 years of age. I think Jeffrey already had 50 Grand Prix’s when he was 17. I won my first championship when I was 26, that makes me even prouder. I won my first Grand Prix in 1993 when I was 26 years old, and I won two in 1994 and I won five in 1995. So, I only had eight GP wins by the time I got my first World title. After that I still won 49, imagine if I had started winning at the age of 20. That doesn’t matter to me anymore, but I am really proud of what I have achieved. When you are racing and you finish second in the championship, you would rather die than finish second. Now, years later, I look back and I summarized my career a bit with the parents from Andrea (Adamo) and I said, I have won five championships, but I also finished four times second and three times third.

MXLarge: I felt with your era, Stefan, yourself, maybe more the Belgian guys, you had some riders before you that were national hero’s and you really remembered everything they had done, guys like De Coster, Roberts, Geboers. I feel like this era or riders, or maybe younger people in general don’t know about the past champions. Do you see that at all with the riders you deal with?

Smets: Yes, but how do you want that, you want that Jeffrey knows about Joel Robert, Gaston Rahier?

MXLarge: I really liked that you guys spoke of those Belgian legends with pride. I don’t see that as much anymore from today’s racers.

Smets: Yes, but they know about me, and Stefan and Pichon and stuff like that. Don’t forget, our careers were the beginning of the 1990s and that is 30 years ago, and we knew about the 60s. These riders now, they know about the 90s, which is similar, I think. I also knew about Rolf Tibblin and Heikki Mikkola, Roger De Coster. I was cheering Roger at Namur in the 70s, so yes, I think they remember, but not as long back as us. This current generation might have been cheering Stefan and myself in the early 2000s. I am sometimes surprised with Andrea and Tom Vialle how much they know about 30 years ago.

MXLarge: Changing the subject, I saw a video from MXGP.tv and it showed you in Trentino when Andrea won the Grand Prix, and you were fighting back tears, it was really a nice moment and one that showed your passion for the sport and riders you work with. Can you tell me about that moment?

Smets: Because nobody expected him to do that, nobody had their money on him. If I was not emotional, I would not be here anymore, if it didn’t touch me, I wouldn’t be here anymore. If I was not sad after a loss, then I stay home. You know, when you quite racing, it took me a while to get those emotions back for the sport and I did take a step back after retiring to get away from this and just to find myself and see what I wanted to do. So, I stayed a little with the federation and MXoNs and when I realized, when I stepped back into it, I felt the emotions coming back again. I also had it with Kevin Strijbos and Glenn Coldenhoff, at the beginning of my coaching you could say. Maybe nobody saw it, but when Glenn was beating the World at RedBud in 2018, yes….

MXLarge: And you are not even Dutch?

Smets: No, but Glenn was my rider, he was my kid, and he was beating the World, even beating Jeffrey. He had made podiums and wins GPs and also with Tom (Vialle). Everyone said, okay, who is this Vialle kid, oh, son of Fred. That is the nice part, people had no idea who he was and second GP at Matterley he made a podium, then he won a GP and the year after he was World champion. If these things didn’t make me emotional anymore, what is the point of being here. Same with Rene Hofer you know (Joel gets emotional). He was on his own and he came and lived with us and then seeing him winning a Grand Prix, then I can cry like a child. You work together, you have the same goals with those kids. With Andrea the goal was to fight for podiums for sure, but he opened the season with a second place, doing solid in Riola, then another podium in Switzerland and then the fourth Grand Prix, with the pressure of the home crowd, winning the GP. Very respectful kid, very hard-working kid. I think for me and for KTM, Arco was a bit special anyway, because that is where Rene (Hofer) won his first and only Grand Prix. Both those things brought up those feelings you asked about.

Ray Archer/KTM images